6.11.2010

I was trying to come up with an "expelliarmus"-like spell to denote the magical venting of spleen, but I couldn't come up with one. Readers (those that remain) are welcome to submit suggestions in the comments.

Anyhoodle, I happened across this article in the Times about a new Harry Potter-themed ride at the Universal theme park in Florida, and it's reminded me of one of the more irritating experiences of the past few days.

The other night, the Better Half wanted to watch the latest Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Extended Franchise, for those of you unfamiliar with the series), so we rented the DVD from a local store. I noted, with suspicion, that the DVD was emblazoned with the word "rental" before putting it in the player.

Want to know what "rental" means when it's emblazoned on your DVD? It means you get to sit through over 20 minutes of distinctly un-magical commercials. In this case, there were commercials for not one but two different Potter-themed video games, the aforementioned ride, and various other chazerai. None of the ads could be fast-forwarded.

I know that we live in this wonderful world where we can fast-forward through ads on TV, and apparently American industry is going the crumble into dust if they don't find a way to make up for it. But the only result of being forced to sit through 20+ minutes of Potter-related commercials was a deep antipathy toward the character before the bloody movie had even started.